


Angels in the Architecture

by Sholio



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Character Study, Christmas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 07:56:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13290480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Kali has a Christmas ritual.





	Angels in the Architecture

**Author's Note:**

  * For [margalo_streussal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/margalo_streussal/gifts).



_**Christmas Eve, 1984** _

When Kali slipped off into the night, she heard Dottie say behind her, "Where's she going?"

"Hush," Funshine said softly. He'd been with her longer; he knew her ways better. "She has something she needs to do, that's all. She'll be back in the morning."

*

She walked into the hospital easily. The security guard and the nurse's station saw what she wanted them to see: a young nurse in scrubs, moving briskly about her duties.

Long past visiting hours, the children's ward was quiet. Kali moved soft-footed past the Christmas decorations the staff had put up for the children, snowflakes and paper chains and a Christmas tree in the waiting area. None of which would make it any less miserable to spend a holiday in a cold white-walled room instead of a home.

At least these children's caregivers meant them no harm.

For whatever that was worth. It didn't make the pain and loneliness any less real.

She peeked into three rooms before she found a child who was awake without a parent at their bedside. "Hello," Kali said softly, stepping through the door as the little girl looked up from the book she was reading by the light of a bedside lamp.

"Hello," the child said tentatively. Unlike the nurses, she saw Kali as she was: purple hair, black jacket, and all. "Who are you?"

 _A friend,_ she wanted to say. But she didn't want these children to learn that strangers were friends. Not in this world.

Instead, she said, "I'm just a visitor. I'm here to show you some magic." 

"I don't like magic tricks," the little girl said, her nose screwed up.

"Oh, but these aren't tricks." Kali held out a hand, palm cupped, and snowflakes began to fall gently from the ceiling, glittering as they fell. The child looked up in startled delight. "This is real magic."

*

She walked out of the ward in the cold hours before dawn, using the last of her strength to make herself invisible to the duty nurse, and leaving a ward full of tired, happy children behind. As she passed one room, she heard a child whisper, "Mommy, I think an angel was here!"

 _No,_ Kali thought. In the elevator, able to let her illusions drop at last, she leaned wearily against the wall; she was wrung out with exhaustion. _Not that. Never that. But at least I could make this a little less of a dark time for you, child._

She wasn't expecting to see a familiar van waiting for her in the parking lot as she slouched out into the pre-dawn chill, her very bones aching with weariness.

"Thought you could use a ride," was all Funshine said. It took her two tries to get up into the passenger seat, and then he pressed a gas station cup of coffee into her hands, the cardboard warm through her gloves.

Angels came in all shapes, she thought, leaning her head against the back of the seat as he turned out of the parking lot. Above, the sky was lightening toward dawn, the clouds holding the faintest promise of colors to come.


End file.
